[rescue] Sun Hardware going for nowt (UK)

[Lex Landa]

On Wed, 2011-08-24 at 21:23 -0400, Sandwich Maker wrote:

> you could probably easily r&r that psu by replacing all the caps - cap
> aging is a commpn problem - but you aren't sounding like a handy
> person.  right?

Sort-of: I have a few electronics qualifications and have built a few
projects from kits, am used to configuring and maintaining all sorts of
computer hardware - but this SPARCserver puzzles me, and probably scares
me a little - it's a big, heavy device with a lot of metal, and I don't
have a proper service manual.  Okay, I admit it, I'm scared of taking it
apart in case I can't put it together again!

Sadly, the PSU is a little beyond the stage where I could replace the
caps: after the spider infestation incident, I botched the cleaning
process and basically shorted-out half of the board.  This caused it to
catch fire: smoke, acrid smell and a crackling sound.  Since I
considered that the board was now burned beyond repair, I got the Dremel
out and removed the backplane power sockets, from which I am now
powering the computer.  I made a bit of a mess of it, I admit - but
there was no way that I could afford a new board.  The problem is that
the new PSU is a generic ATX power supply and cannot provide 5V at 60A -
so, it squeaks a lot and sounds as if it is about to go the way of the
old one.

If you'd like to see the old PSU, I have taken some pictures of it
(large images):

http://brooknet.no-ip.com/~lex/public/stuff/psu1.jpg
http://brooknet.no-ip.com/~lex/public/stuff/psu2.jpg
http://brooknet.no-ip.com/~lex/public/stuff/psu3.jpg
http://brooknet.no-ip.com/~lex/public/stuff/psu4.jpg

> " I am interested in compatible video cards, and perhaps audio cards.  It
> " has the standard SUN ISDN 8 kHz audio.
> 
> pre-isdn att m-law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-law_algorithm

That's the one - it's 8 kHz u-Law/mu-Law audio.

> it doesn't have 16-bit stereo out like all the other m-bus [and later]
> systems?

Nope - just 8-bit.  The socket says 'AUDIO' and is an 8-pin mini-DIN.
Usually, this connects to a 'speaker box' but in this case, it has a
jack plug hanging off it, as I didn't have any 3.5mm sockets and can't
currently afford any (lack of money drives a lot of the horrible kludges
that I implement!).

Lex